Duke football will provide competition for Florida State

Blue Devils have surprised with winning way

Oct. 24, 2012

Jordon Byas of Duke intercepts a pass and runs into the end zone for a touchdown in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg Virginia Saturday Oct. 13 2012. / AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Matt Gentry

Written by

Perry Kostidakis

Contributing Writer @perrykos

With that phrase, suddenly the whole “world is ending in 2012” thing has potential.

Duke football has long existed as an overlooked warmup for football season, especially since the Blue Devils haven’t had a winning season or gone to a bowl game since 1994. In fact, in the past ten years, they’ve only won 25 games. In comparison, the Seminoles have won 26 since 2010.

But in Doak Campbell Saturday, the leaders of the ACC Atlantic and Coastal divisions will meet.

Duke (6-2, 3-1 ACC) is coming off an emotional win against rival North Carolina, in which senior quarterback Sean Renfree threw a touchdown to sophomore wide receiver with 18 seconds left.

“We’ve got a great Duke team coming in this week,” Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher said. “They’re moving the ball well and playing good defense […] great special teams, too. Their punter [Will Monday] is No. 1 in the league. They’re winning the field position battle and they’re doing a great job of not giving up big plays—make you go the long way.”

Coaches weren’t the only ones to notice the improved play from Duke.

“They are doing a great job this year,” senior quarterback EJ Manuel added. “Renfree is having a great season; he is a good friend of mine from Elite 11. They look a lot more athletic now; they don’t look like the Duke of old. We are going to have to be prepared for these guys. It is going to be a big game just like it was last year.”

On the offensive side of the ball, the Blue Devils are currently averaging 35 points per game, much to the credit of Renfree, a redshirt senior. He’s thrown for 1,793 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions, all while maintaining a 69.2 percent completion percentage. It’s going to be another chance for the vaunted Seminole defense to assert themselves, while they continue to rank in the top-10 in rushing defense, pass efficiency defense, total defense, scoring defense and pass defense.

Defensively, Duke has been giving up 27.8 points per game, in addition to allowing 153.13 and 123.34 pass and rush yards, respectively. Once again, Florida State matches up well, averaging 231 rushing yards and 288 passing per game, and putting up 44.28 points on average.

It’s going to be Florida State’s first game without their lead rusher, senior Chris Thompson, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury against Miami.

“That’s a very big blow to us because of what he is to our team, but we also have two quality guys in [James] Wilder and [Devonta] Freeman who we’re proud of,” Fisher said. “[They] played very well [against Miami]. You have to go on and we’ll adjust.”Behind the play of Wilder, Freeman, and Manuel, the Seminoles hope to solidify its position in the ACC and prepare itself for the potential championship game rematch that this game could be.

“We’ll have our hands full,” said Fisher.

Florida State takes on Duke Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Doak Campbell, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU and the WatchESPN app.